E3 reborn into summer show in Santa Monica

As promised, E3 will return in July of 2007 featuring a series of tweaks to the show's format and venue. The announcement comes two months after word dropped that the show would be considerably downsized. According to its organizers, the gaming expo had grown too large and had lost its focus.

The new show will be rechristened as the E3 Media and Business Summit when it takes place from July 11-13 in Santa Monica, California, next year. Without a doubt, it's all about the media and business getting tigether. Replacing the massive LA Convention Center thronging with gamers will be scores of hotel suites that are accessible only by invitation. According to Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA, this change will enhance the purpose of E3.

"By combining suite-based meetings with the software showcase in a controlled and business-like environment, we believe we will successfully fulfill our primary objective of giving high-level media the best of all worlds," he said. Lowenstein added that the new show "will also provide an excellent opportunity for meetings with retailers, developers and other audiences."

The show will have a central meeting space at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica airport to accommodate gaming displays and more traditional "show and tell" tradeshow setups, but the invitation-only event will preclude the general public from stopping by to see the latest and greatest the gaming world has to offer. Lowenstein said that this is the direction in which industry attendees by and large wanted to move.

"The new E3 is first and foremost about getting business done. When we asked key audiences what they wanted in the new event, we heard that they wanted opportunities for high-level meetings in a business-like setting, to play games, network, and socialize, to see major company offerings while also preserving the sense of discovery that is so much a part of E3, and to hear substantive presentations on the most important issues and trends facing the industry," Lowenstein said. "We believe the event we have shaped will fulfill all those needs."

The ESA also announced that the show would feature daily business luncheons with industry leaders, the "Into The Pixel" video game art competition and exhibition, and gaming showcases that may include a special exhibit for independent game studios.

Tickets, please?

When news of the downsizing plans broke over the summer, sources in the gaming industry told me that cost and access were two major complaints driving the re-tooling of the show. Sure, the original E3 was also billed as a media event, but it turned out to be nothing of the sort. The show had all the sparkle of a party-down Las Vegas shindig, which is great unless you're footing the bill or actually trying to connect with industry members.

Will the new E3 hit the spot? We expect all the major gaming companies to be there, but we do expect that a bit of the spectacle will be toned down, and that may ruin it for some. However, I know I speak for many media types when I say that it will all be worth it if accurate information and close contact with the gaming industry is really the end result. Once upon a time, that's what these conferences were all about.

In August, Lowenstein said that the glitzy days of E3 were no longer necessary because gaming is now mainstream and had nothing left to prove in terms of drawing attention to the industry per se. "The industry is recognized as a big part of mainstream culture, so the need for a big glittering event to validate the industry is not what it used to be," he said at the time.

Ken Fisher / Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation.